


Of lonely boys and beginnings

by DearLittleRobin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Boys In Love, Crushes, Friends to Lovers, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, I can't help myself i have to have a n g s t, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28661781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearLittleRobin/pseuds/DearLittleRobin
Summary: Lance hates Keith until he doesn’tThey are just friends until they aren’tThe Kerberos mission sucks ass
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 55





	Of lonely boys and beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, my friends and welcome to another one of those times in which you have a hundred fics to finish but then an idea hits you like a slap and you have to write it.   
> I am still Klance trash even after all these years oh well
> 
> Warnings include: I had half an idea and half a motivation so this will be shorter and less detailed than it could have been but if I leave it as multichapter I'll never fucking finish

When he first sees the young prodigy emo kid that aces literally every simulator he enters, Lance is ready to hate him. Who does he think he is? Being so effortlessly amazing at everything, walking around not speaking to anyone because he thinks is superior, talking to Takashi Shirogane,  _ The  _ Takashi Shirogane, like they’re best friends. 

Lance is ready to hate him until he sees the boy sitting alone at the Garrison cafeteria and is reminded of how Veronica didn’t have many friends in high school because she didn’t know how to talk to them, not because she thought she was better than everyone. 

It starts with a tentative  _ hey is anyone sitting here?  _ to which the other boy replies with a mumbled and surprised  _ no  _ and Lance is sure that what he’s got in front of him is not the monster he always thought the other boy would turn out to be: it’s just a very awkward kid. 

“Thanks,” Lance says with a smile. Keith kinda returns it so Lance counts it as a win “I always sit with my friend Hunk but he came earlier today. He’s getting some extra classes in engineering, anything to get out of the flight simulators, he says”

“He’s the guy with the orange bandana, right?” Keith asks and he still seems unsure about speaking but he  _ is  _ talking back so Lance will also count that as a win. 

“Yeah, that’s him.” Lance agrees “You would think a guy who wears a bandana everywhere would be more intimidating, but my man Hunk is as soft as they come.” Keith chuckles at that and Lance smiles brightens “Anyway, I’m Lance” 

“Oh, I know” Keith replies and continues before Lance can ask “We have a lot of classes together” Keith explains with a shrug “And you’re always really close to my scores so I read your name a lot” 

There’s no malice in his voice, Lance notices. He’s not saying it as a way of rubbing in Lance’s face how many times Lance has got second place to him, he’s just saying as a fact, just pointing it out to explain why he knows who Lance is.

_ Just a very awkward kid _ . 

“Well, then we can skip introductions,” Lance says as he leans forward on the table “And go straight to the important stuff.”

“Important stuff?” Keith asks, confusion clear on his tone

“Hunk and I will do a movie night on Friday at our dorm,” Lance explains. 

“Yes?” And the confusion is still there. Lance can’t help but chuckle.

“And you’re invited, Keith,” Lance says a bit exasperated, but not rude. “Is room 407, we’ll start at like 8. Bring a pillow so you can crash at our place if gets to late, I wouldn’t want you getting caught by hall security” 

Keith just stares at him for a while, eyes wide. It stays like that for long enough that Lance worries maybe he read this all wrong, maybe Keith just wanted him to get up and leave. 

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to-” Lance starts, but Keith cuts him off.

“I would love to,” He says and then he smiles for real and _damn_ _he has a nice smile_. 

Lance smiles back and it all begins there.

+++

“And Iverson was so mad” Lance is saying as they walk through the hall. He moves his hands around dramatically, bringing emphasis to the emotional tale he tasked himself to reenact “Really really mad, dude. I swear I thought he was gonna hit the guy”

“He would never” Keith answers with a chuckle. He’s still sweaty from his combat lessons (Lance promised he would sign up for them on the next term but truth be told he really wasn’t looking forward to it. He has always been a more long-range kind of guy) so they are walking to Keith’s dorm before going to 407 for their weekly movie night. “Shiro told me they once made a teach party or something. It was all about confraternization and making the teachers make friends with each other and stuff.”

They arrive at Keith’s dorm and he’s quick to pull out the card from his back pocket to open the door. Lance enters and sits down at the chair next to the bathroom door with practiced ease (He still can’t believe Keith has a room  _ and  _ a bathroom all to himself. Keith had explained it was because he literally lived at the Garrison and Lance hadn’t felt it was the time to ask  _ but what about your family?  _ so he left it at that. Besides, Keith let him shower at his room when the common bathroom was too full so there were some benefits for him too)

“Anyway, one of the teachers, I think it was Ms.Harrison because she was the whole thing was happening at her house. Or maybe it was Mr.Carson...? Is his name even Carson?” Keith continues as he enters the bathroom. He keeps the door open, as he often does, so Lance can still hear what he’s saying. 

“The history of aircraft teacher?” Lance asks and Keith hums affirmatively “I think so. I know it begins with a C so close enough anyway” 

“Ok so one of these two suggested they see a movie to really hammer the whole bonding thing home, yeah?” Keith keeps going, voice growing louder as he turns the shower on. “And Mr. Harrinson has this whole collection of old as hell l DVDs, yes, _DVDs,_ because her mother used to watch them to keep the tradition alive or something”

“Dude, my grandpa talks about DVDs and they were already pretty much outdated then,” Lance tells him. “I didn’t even know they were still like, functional.”

“I know right? Ok so she takes this reeeealy old movie called Marvin and me or something and puts it on and the story is about this guy with his dog and Shiro said it was really cute and wholesome but the dog dies in the end because he’s a dog and they don’t live as much” 

“Maaaaan, Ms. Harrison is a cruel woman, holy shit” 

“Shiro said the same thing.” Keith laughs and it’s a bit muffled by the sound of the water running but Lance can still hear it. “Ok ok, the point of all this! Sad movie, right?”

“Very sad movie”

“Very sad movie. And when it ends a lot of the teachers are a bit emotional, some are even shedding a tear or two, but one is full on sobbing like, ugly, emotional, snotty crying all the way” The water stops for a moment. “Guess who it was”

Lance immediately gets up and is ready to storm into the bathroom to tell Keith  _ there is no fucking way  _ but his mind catches up with the situation quicker than his legs and he remembers Keith is in the bathroom  _ taking a shower  _ so Lance should  _ not _ go in there. He can feel his cheeks heating up.

“There’s no fucking way!” Lance screams anyway and ignores the way his already hot face gets hotter when he hears Keith cackling from inside the bathroom. 

“I made Shiro swear like eight times that he wasn’t lying,” Keith says back and the sound of the water comes back “So yes fucking way, dude. Iverson is the guy who cries his heart out at dog movies” 

“I cannot believe it. Nuh-uh. We’ll have to test it out, Keith, there’s the only way of truly knowing.” 

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

So Lance starts his plan of making Hunk hack the projector on the classroom next to the flight simulator to play the top 10 saddest dog scenes in movies and Keith makes the actually very good point that Hunk would never fuck with Iverson like that so the plan turns into how to convince Hunk to hack the projector and by the time they get to what feels like the millionth idea to get Hunk on board Keith gets out of the bathroom in all his wet hair, kinda wet torso, towel wrapped around the waist glory.

It’s by no means an uncommon situation for them, Lance more often than not accompanies Keith to his dorm after his combat classes and hangs around until he’s clean and dressed, so Keith just walks to his bed and Lance just turns his chair around like he always does. They have been best friends for more than three years now, becoming nearly inseparable since the day Lance sat down on Keith’s table and asked him to come to movie night, and besides, Lance usually shared a common bathroom with countless other boys, he was used to it all. 

Still, something about that time feels…different. Lance’s cheeks are still burning and his mind drifts without his consent to what it would be like to just turn around and  _ see  _ Keith, what it would be like to let Keith see him too. The realization hits like a slap and Lance takes a sharp breath.

_ Oh no _

“Lance?” Keith calls, effectively taking Lance out of his I Just Realized I Have a Crush on My Best Friend trance. “You okay?” 

“Yeah,” He says and curses himself for how weird his voice sounds. He clears his throat “Yeah” He tries again “I just still can't believe Iverson would cry that much at a movie” 

“Yeah, that was really unexpected” Keith chuckles and jesus christ he has a nice laugh. Lance is soooo screwed. “But like, are you sure you are okay? You just stopped talking out of nowhere” 

_ I just realized I have a crush on you  _ Lance would say if he was in one of those movies Rachel used to make him watch. He would say it and Keith would return his feelings and they would have their big romantic movie ending kiss and live happily ever after until the sequel comes out. 

He’s tempted to do it, really. One of the core pillars of his and Keith’s friendship is honesty and they both took it very seriously. Keith had never shown any trace of being a homophobic douche or something so it’s not like he would stop talking to him right? But...Keith’s also very awkward and having a friend confess to you when you don’t like them back is already very awkward. Lance sighs.

There’s too much to lose if it all goes wrong. 

“I’m good,” He says finally “I’m just a bit tired and it caught up to me just now. Sorry for being weird.” 

A hand finds itself on Lance’s shoulder and it sends chills down his body. He tilts his head up and sees Keith looking down at him concern clear on his face.

“You sure?” Keith asks. 

It would be so easy to just lift his hand and pull Keith down, to just make their lips meet, to tell Keith the truth. 

“I’m sure,” Lance says instead.

Keith huffs like he’s not totally convinced, and Lance bets he’s not, but let’s go of Lance’s shoulder to walk to his bed and take his pillow and backpack. 

“Come on then,” He says “Hunk will be waiting for us already” 

They leave the room and walk in a comfortable silence to Hunk’s and Lance’s room. It’s a path they’re both really used to taking and people don’t even bat an eye to the two of them looking like two kids going to a sleepover (which they are but that’s beside the point). Lance smiles when he remembers the first time they did this, how he knocked on Keith’s door to “pick him up” so he wouldn’t get lost and glared at anyone who looked at them funny because Keith was walking around with a pillow. They watched a new superhero movie that had come out a few months back and Lance was super excited to see that night. Keith loved it and he and Lance stayed up until late talking about theories for the sequel and watching interviews with the cast. 

Up until then, it seemed like both of them were still trying to see if they could really connect with each other and Lance isn’t ashamed to say he was very relieved when it turned out they could. Don’t get him wrong, Lance loves Hunk with all his heart, They have been friends for so long they’re practically brothers, but Lance knows Hunk doesn’t have the same goals as he does. They’ll stay together, stay best friends, but they’ll follow different paths and that’s okay, but Lance would miss having something to talk fighter pilot with. Then Keith comes in and becomes much more than just a class buddy that Lance was initially aiming for so here they are. 

Lance takes his card out of his back pocket and opens his dorm door. Hunk is quick to greet them and talk about their options for the movie and snacks and Lance smiles at him but can’t really get to pay much attention.

“-out of nowhere. He says he’s tired” He hears Keith whisper. 

Lance raises his head and is greeted by the worried looks of his two best friends.It feels bad to have them worry that much about him because of a crisis as stupid as the one he’s having at the moment but is not like he can say what’s bothering him at the moment. Not with Keith right there.

“I’m good, guys,” He says with a smile “I was just more tired than I realized and it caught up to me. What movie are we watching?”

“You sure you up for movies, Lance?” Hunk asks.

“I’m sure, big guy” Lance turns to face him completely and hopes his eyes pass on the message  _ I’ll explain later  _ ”Don’t worry about me”

The message seems to be received and understood because Hunk lets it go and goes back to talking about the movies. Keith still doesn’t seem convinced but he trusts Hunk’s judgment enough not to pry. 

They end up settling on this movie about an astronaut that gets trapped in a haunted space station. It has its jumpscares but is overall kinda funny and Lance spends a large portion of movie time panicking about how his heart skips a beat every time Keith touches him as he laughs. The whole plot is stupid enough that Lance doesn’t feel bad for ignoring it in favor of more  _ pressing matters.  _

Thing is, Lance should have known something like that was bound to happen. Firstly because Keith was a good-looking guy and although his worst years had already gone by Lance was still a hormonal teenager. Secondly, because Keith was cool and talented and funny and helpful and just overall a good company. It was a killer combo: pretty  _ and _ nice. 

Lance is sooo screwed. 

He should really talk to Hunk about it, Hunk would most definitely have good advice on what to do. He talks to Hunk, they figure out what to do, he does it and is done, no more crisis. 

The movie ends and they watch another and when the second one ends is, as always, way too late for Keith to go back to his dorm. It's all routine from now, but there’s the added bonus of Lance figuring out he has a massive crush on Keith so making the usual sleep arrangement plans is a ton more complicated. 

“Dude, we chose some good ones today” Hunks chuckles as he gets up.

“I’ll have to agree” Lance answers as casual as he can “I had fun” 

“Me too” Keith agrees “But for real, I’m exhausted” 

There’s no real running away from this, Lance knows. It’s all routine from now on and if he changes something they’ll notice and they’ll ask and maybe they won’t let it go as easily as they had before. So Lance sucks it up and thanks the lord that the room is already dark so no one can see his red cheeks as he climbs into his bed with Keith. 

At first, he just let Keith take his bed but then the other boy would always complain about it and say it made him feel bad so they found a compromise in sharing. Surprisingly, it was never awkward like Lance thought it would be. Well, never until that moment.

Lance’s eyes still haven’t gotten used to the dark so he closes them before he manages to see Keith in front of him. He can still feel the other boy’s presence, feel his warmth like he never felt before. He tries his best to sleep, he really does, but it just doesn’t come to him. He feels too hot but he doesn’t want to move. Feelings are way too overwhelming for his liking.

Lance stays like that for a while, no sign of sleep coming to him. He can hear Hunk’s soft snores and Keith’s breathing calmly, but he’s still wide awake. He sighs, frustrated. 

“Lance?” Keith whispers to him.

He’s tempted to just ignore him, pretend he’s sleeping, but he knows Keith wouldn’t fall for that and it would only make him mad at being lied to. So Lance opens his eyes. It takes a bit to adjust, but, with the help of the bit of light that is coming from the holes between the blinds on the window, he soon can see Keith’s eyes staring back at him. 

“Yeah?” He whispers back.

“What’s going on?” 

Their faces are very close and Lance lets himself dream about them sleeping like this and waking like this being more than just friends. It would be so easy to just envelop Keith in a hug, to kiss his forehead and his nose and his cheeks and his mouth, to touch and be touched to love and be loved. 

Lance wants that. He really wants that.

“I realized I have a crush on you earlier today” Lance finally admits and forces himself to keep his eyes on Keith’s “And I don’t know what to do about it”

In hindsight, maybe confessing at what is probably like 3AM as they sleep in the same bed is not one of Lance’s brightest ideas and he can feel panic rising up inside him up until he sees Keith smile. It’s one of the prettiest smiles Lance has ever seen.

“I have a few ideas,” Keith tells him and Lance feels the boy’s hand finding his under the covers. It sends chills down his spine.

“Like what?” Lance asks.

Kissing Keith is exactly how he imagined it would be and nothing like it at all. He tastes like mint from the toothpaste he used earlier and his hair is so soft as Lance lets his hand tangle in it. The kiss is slow and Lance takes his time to melt into it, to let the joy of it all spread through his body. They separate after a few moments, cheeks flushed and smiles wide. Lance is happy, he’s very happy and he sleeps with Keith closer than he has ever been and dreams of a bright future.

The next day, the news of the Kerberos mission failure comes up first thing in the morning and everything changes.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, sorry for any mistakes English is not my mother language and I get confused sometimes so ops  
> Hope you enjoyed reading anyway  
> I'm really a sucker for friends to lovers stuff so if motivation hits me you can expect more klance adventures in platonically sleeping on the same bed until it isn't platonic anymore  
> Sorry for the angsty end by the way, it's stronger than me


End file.
